(Angela is still texting using Angelo's cell phone, while Angelo stands to the side, scratching a half-grown beard)
Angelo: Yeah, remember when she said last chapter that she would be texting the girls saved on my phone's memory? Well, she's been doing it for the past SIX WEEKS!!!
Angela: By the way, that beard you're growing is disgusting!
Angelo: It's called a playoff beard you annoying, aggravating fracture of my personality! The Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year and its their best chance at the Cup in years! I'm not gonna jeopardize their chance to win Lord Stanley's Cup for THE FIRST TIME EVER by not supplying them with the necessary amount of mojo!
Anyway, I wanted to get this chapter up earlier but I've had three papers for school to write in the past little while, and my finals are still ongoing. I actually blew off studying for my history finals to finish writing this. I also realized that around a month ago was the 2-Year-Anniversary of GOD, which is kind of sad that this has existed for two years and I'm not even at thirty chapters...Well I was inactive for what? Nine months at one point. Anyways, I should have more time to write, because as of the 27th, I will be finished school for an indefinite period of time.
Also, I would like to thank the following people who reviewed GOD since the last chapter posted ShireFolk, Island-style-girl, Craxuan, Plutos, RaiOokami and Darth Obnoxious. It is definitely a rarity for me to get six different reviewers in a period between two chapters, so I want to thank all you people for taking the time out and review this story. I look forward to hearing from all of you again, and from hearing from any newcomers. Remember, it will only take five minutes for you to make a sad, nerdy KH fan feel good about himself.
Anyways...onto this chapter, which I don't think I need to hype up any more than I already have. Read it and enjoy!
Chapter 28: Rain of Fire
"We've got to go. Now." Rain said firmly to Sora and Kairi. The trio nodded in agreement, and made a move to head off, but were stopped by Allister.
"Whoa, whoa! Hold up guys." Allister said, waving his arms to be an extra attention magnet. Clyde was fishing around in his coat and withdrew two yellow and red vials of liquid.
"Elixirs?" Sora questioned, as Clyde passed them out to him and Rain.
"Right you are my spike-headed friend." Clyde said. "You see, Kairi is doing alright in terms of damage and energy, but you two are fairly smashed up." Rain and Sora had to agree, Rosa had ripped into them with feral strength, and they had to fight back with the same kind of power. Rain, having fought the majority of the battle, was especially banged up. "These puppies should get you back to fightin' shape."
Wordlessly, Sora and Rain quickly downed the tonic, letting its curative powers go to work. Within seconds, their few remaining wounds patched themselves up quickly and they could feel their energy shoot right back up. Rain then turned to Allister.
"What about you two?" She asked.
Allister was putting his clothes back on, doing his best not to do aggravate his injuries. "Well, as much as we would like to come and join you two." He explained quickly. "But I doubt we were the only ones to see that huge plume of fire. Me and Clyde have to run distraction, make sure no one put their noses in your business."
"Okay." Sora nodded. "We'll try and take care of this as quickly as we can."
"Take however long you want." Allister was collecting his swords and Clyde was pacing back and forth, talking away on a cell phone, apparently giving someone orders. "Just remember two things: be safe, and don't die." Before leaving, Allister gave a quick bow to Kairi and then bolted off, Clyde noticing and running at his partner's heels.
Sora chuckled to himself, drawing a glare from Kairi. "What's so funny?"
"I dunno. Mostly you not getting uppity about Allister's royal treatment."
"Normally I would be peeved." She admitted through a closed mouth. "But we have too much on our hands at this point, right Rain?"
The two checked behind their shoulders, where Rain was, only to see that she was gone. Scouting the horizon, they saw the woman half-running, half-teleporting towards the pillar of flame. Without another word, the two Keyblade Masters bolted forward in a Quick Run.
Dayne was in hell.
That was the only apt way to describe the situation. Cassius's prison of flame had created a hell on earth for all its inmates. Covering forty-square feet in diameter, stretching ten-feet into the sky, and topped with the walls of flame collapsing over into a dome, the chamber of fire was a chamber of death. Flickering flames, sweltering and oppressive heat, and an overruling demon that was the cylindrical pen of heat and fire.
But Dayne ignored this, or did his best to at any rate. Cassius made it abundantly clear as to the purpose of this magic. It was not to keep anyone in or out, rather, it was a source of attraction. He wanted to take everyone out in a single blow; Dayne, Rain, Sora, and Kairi. He was not about to let that happen. The sight of the flames, the feeling of the heat had put all of his warrior instinct's into overdrive, and all of instincts told him to run Cassius down.
"It seem I've finally brought the old you out." Cassius was busy trying to fend off a rapid succession of horizontal slashes, leveled at his chest, with his gauntlets. High Streak's motor was running at high speeds, leaving deep gouges in the thick iron armour, even drawing blood at some points. Suddenly, he stopped backing off, and snatched the blade with his left hand. "I like it!"
Before Cassius could do anything, Dayne quickly charged his blade with electricity, sending a strong current up the sword and into Cassius's gauntlet. Snakes of lightning snapped off the blade and struck Cassius in the chest, causing him to roar in pain and lash backwards. Dayne kicked him in the gut to complete the separation, the momentum forced Dayne backwards while Cassius went stumbling, back first, into the curtain of fire. Dayne was pleasantly surprised to see Cassius howl in anguish, as his own flames ate at his back.
"I thought you paid attention to me! You should know that the old Dayne is long gone." Dayne charged up with energy, giving the throttle of High Streak a few pumps. Cassius pulled himself off the curtain, and went barreling forth. "Right now, I'm all new for your enjoyment! Prism Chain Arts, Striking Style: Blade Barrage!"
Swinging his blade rapidly, Dayne unleashed several curved blade beams of blue energy, which all caught Cassius, smashing into him with a sick brutality, each one causing an explosion of blood. Staggering slightly, Cassius stopped his charge and fire back with spinning bullets of flame, which Dayne blocked with the flat of his blade.
While Dayne was distracted by the fire arrows, Cassius used his free hand to gather a large orb of fire. Thrusting his palm outwards, launching the collected fire and transforming it into a serpent-shaped stream of flame. With no time to react, Dayne was caught by the full force of the flamethrower. The serpent plumed outward on contact, engulfing Dayne in a huge fireball. To his credit, he tried to ignore the pain and move forward, but the speed the flame serpent was traveling at was pushing him back, he also only let out a few pained grunts, as to not give Cassius any satisfaction. As the flames started to die, Cassius followed up with a sliding face-palm attack, throwing Dayne to the ground.
After being introduced to so much flame, Dayne's clothing were in a state of disrepair. Which was amazing given that all of his clothings were fireproof and magically reinforced. Both his pant legs were burned, the right up past his ankle, the left all the way to the knee. His shirt and vest were riddled with holes, and his jacket had taken a major beating, now only covering a small portion of his back and right shoulder. Despite the intensity of Cassius's flames and attacks, Dayne sprung back to his feet and charged right back into battle.
With reckless abandon, Dayne threw High Streak at Cassius's head. The Immortal leader easily dodged the attack, but was unaware that the whirling blade was a feint. Dayne drove both his fists, crackling with energy, into Cassius's ribs.
"Prism Chain Arts, Thundaga Style: Dragon Lightning Cannon!"
Intending on firing the dragon-shaped stream of electricity at point-blank, Dayne pushed his pulsating purple fists out even farther. The attack came, firing the purple energy directly at Cassius's sides and shoulders.
Despite the intense pain from the strike, Cassius cackled fiendishly. "Ha! You think this is going to put me away. Amateur!" Cassius shifted his body, so that the Chain Art was striking him in the chest now – his shoulder area badly singed by the lightning blast – seemingly unaffected by the attack. "Let me show you how to end a fight quickly. Soul of Fire!"
Suddenly, jets of fire began to shoot up from the ground, spinning around Cassius like a rapid-speed tornado! Within seconds, Cassius was covered by the flaming whirlwind, and Dayne's attack was no longer hitting Cassius, now harmlessly bouncing off the flames. Despite this, Dayne gritted his teeth and pumped in more energy into his attack, trying to penetrate the makeshift shield.
Suddenly, a wave of energy erupted from the center of the spinning flames. Instantly, the flames shot outward in all directions, pouncing towards Dayne. What's more, Dayne's own attack was bounced back in the expanding flames. Wide-eyed and shocked, Dayne could only lean back slightly as the flames washed over him, and his own super-charged attack rebounded into him.
The pain was unbearable. Fire scorching at every exposed area of his skin, and lightning coursing through his body, as he was flung backwards. And then, he hit the wall of flames surrounding the battlefield. His body jerked and shuddered in a violent manner, as the rippling flames burned away the remainder of his jacket and the back of his shirt. His body's pained thrashing was finally enough to un-stick him from the wall, as he fell in a barely conscious heap.
Dayne's eyes growing heavy from the savage beating, all he could do was listen to the crackling flames, footstep drawing nearer, and Cassius's mocking laughter.
Sora and Kairi approached where Rain had stopped short. Of course, it wasn't hard to miss a ten foot pillar of flame, so following Rain wasn't exactly a necessary thing. All three of them approached the towering inferno, in awe at the sight, and unsure as to what to do next. Rain was trying to figure how to get through the flames, already ruling out teleporting, as she had no idea what was on the other side of the fire.
Sora knew from Roxas's memories that Axel had the ability to create rings of fire that were around eight or so feet high. But height wasn't the jaw-dropping quality of the prison before them. Axel's flames only covered a small distance, but up close to this tower, Sora could barely see where it started to curve.
"This is..." He began, unsure of what to say.
"Cassius." Rain replied quickly. She had been staring directly into the curtain for the longest time, seemingly ignoring the heat, light, and smoke coming off it.
"He's already fighting us directly?" Sora asked, stunned.
"Cassius is not the type to sit around at wait. Especially when we've been thoroughly humiliating and defeating his subordinates on a regular basis." Rain raised a hand to the flames for some reason, her face trying to discern a way into the blaze. "Do you think we could pass through this if you two used the Reflect spell?"
Kairi shook her head. "I don't think that would work. Reflect is more of a temporary measure, only working for a few seconds. We could try to use it repeatedly, but it would drain our magic. Plus we don't know how thick the wall is. We could run out of magic halfway through it and end up getting burned to a crisp."
Sora saw the look on Rain's face and spoke up too. "Protect and Shell won't work either. They last for a long time, but they only reduce the damage we take, not completely neutralize it."
Rain growled in frustration, mentally going through the spells that Sora and Kairi could cast and coming to a block every time. Water would do nothing, nor would Blizzard. Aero, Haste, Slow, Gravity, Gaia. Nothing would work!
Her frustrating train of thought was derailed by Sora in an instant. "Rain." He said. "What about your Scarlet Shield move?"
"Shield of the Scarlet Flowers." Kairi corrected softly.
"Yeah, anyways," Sora continued on, "what if you use that? If I remember the move right, it disintegrates whatever it touches. With the shield up, we can all dash behind it as quickly as possible. We should be able to outrun the flames and get through quick enough."
Rain turned around the three looked at each other. The plan was very risky to say the least, if they stumbled or the wall proved to be too thick, then they would all burn alive. But right now, Dayne was in danger of being destroyed by a madman. They had to risk it all to save him.
"Okay." She conceded. The group then filed up into a triangular formation, Rain at the front. "But if you feel unsafe or unsure about what will happen, don't hesitate to cast Reflect or Shell. And if the shield starts to fail, grab onto me and I will try and teleport all of us back." The two teens nodded, and Rain began to wildly throw her arm around in the air, creating a symbol through energy trails.
"7 Rose Draw, No. 5: Shield of the Scarlet Flowers!" The red energy barrier formed in front of Rain, covering the space that Sora and Kairi also occupied.
Taking a deep breath, the three broke out into a made dash, breaking the cusp of flame and crossing the fiery Rubicon.
"I've never been on to disparage either light or darkness," Cassius sneered at the down Dayne. "But if this is the sorry condition that has befallen you for basking in the light for so long, then I suppose the light is truly inferior." Dayne could only grunt lightly in response, his battered body stirring lightly. Cassius gave a wolf-like grin and began to stomp on Dayne with his large armoured boots, crashing down on Dayne's back, shoulder and collarbone.
The grin on Cassius's face turned from sadistic to disappointment, as Dayne's prone body stopped moving again, even his wounds weren't healing. "Come on." He said. "Come on!" Again, harsher this time. He began to stomp on Dayne again, trying to warrant a reaction but got nothing. He then kicked Dayne square in the jaw, letting blood and spittle fly and causing the warrior to turn over on his back, groaning in pain.
"Come on! Do something! Heal your wounds, draw your gun, retrieve your sword, use a Chain Art, shine some of your wit upon me. Do something! Anything!" He roared in anger, stomping down with all of might, the boot's sole crashing onto Dayne's sternum. This time, the attack got a reaction, with a sickening crack coming from Dayne's sternum, and a pained cry rising from Dayne.
"I haven't seen active field duty for fifty years, and then you suddenly show up, giving me reason to finally draw my sword and face the opponent head on...and I get this. This sniveling, cowardly weakling who can only break my sword. I come searching for the only person I've ever known who can match me in combat, the only being other than me that may be described as "perfect"...and I get this!"
With no pomp or circumstance, Cassius snatched Dayne up by the neck, picking him up with ease. Fire flared up around his right fist.
Fortunately for Dayne, his foe never got the chance to give him a skull-shattering punch, as two unknown projectiles came flying from behind Cassius, colliding into his back. The Immortal leader arched forward, grunting in pain. Dayne dropped from his grip and steam rose off of Cassius's back.
Cassius whipped around, and Dayne craned his neck to get a view of the attackers as well. It was Sora, Kairi, and Rain!
While Dayne's beaten face showed fear, Cassius gave another sly wolf-like grin. "Like moths to a flame...." He muttered to himself.
Sora and Kairi made no motion that they heard him, instantly leveling Keyblades at their antagonist.
"Blizzaga!" Sora casted.
"Waterga!" Kairi called out.
A burst of compressed water and a large hunk of ice shot from Oathkeeper and Oblivion, flying at their target and hitting him square in the face. The Immortal reared back in pain, steam rising off of his super-heat conductor of a body.
Rain, anger in her eyes, lunged forward, warping away after the first step and appearing behind Cassius, raking Scarlet Queen into Cassius's back. The staggering fiend thrashed wildly at his assailant, but she simply teleported again, re-appearing and slamming her thin blade into the muscular frame of her former leader.
Sora and Kairi moved around the lightning-fast skirmished to get to Dayne, who still had the look of fear on his face and in his eyes.
"Dayne, Dayne!" Kairi began to shake and jostle her bodyguard. To her, it looked like the warrior was catatonic. She rummaged through her side pouch for one of the elixirs Clyde gave her. When she procured the tincture, she tried her best to force feed it to Dayne. "Come on...He's in bad shape." She said back to Sora, unaware he could still hear. When the elixir appeared to have no effect on him, she quickly cast Curaga, the green light washing over the Immortal's body and repaired some of the insane amount of damage done to his body.
"Kairi," Sora said apprehensively. "We can't do anymore for him. We should help Rain and heal him after we beat Cassius."
"Okay," she said half-heartedly. With one last look at the downed warrior, she cast another spell, this time causing a blue clock to appear under her, its hands moving forward extremely fast. With the Haste spell complete, Kairi – complete with blue aura – rapidly dashed into the war, joining Rain's assault on Cassius.
Sora was about to cast his own Haste spell, but he was stopped when he heard Dayne's voice croak at him.
"Sora..." The warrior said in pain. "Sora...you..." He was trying to warn him, but Sora just thought he was trying to fire another insult at him.
"Hey!" Sora shot back at him. "I know this fight is important to you, but you're dieing! You need our help! Cool off and we'll handle it.
The Keyblade Master quickly cast the Haste spell and joined the fight, leaving an even more worried Dayne to lie uselessly on the ground.
No, you fool... Dayne thought. Sora was engaging Cassius directly, backing away from a series of rapid jabs with his enhanced speed. Get out while you can. Run! Leave me to die and run! You can't beat him.
With Sora and Kairi's magically amped up speed and Rain's ability to teleport, they managed to make Cassius look like a fool in combat. All of his attacks were easily dodged, and he roared for blood constantly, making him look more like a berserking idiot than the suave, competent general he was when he faced Dayne. While crossing the fire barrier, Rain had informed the others about Cassius's "Perfect Soul" and, as such, they all knew they had to take him out as quickly as possible.
Right now, they were accomplishing that with constant quick slashes from their weapons and Kairi and Sora's Blizzard and Water spells. But the strange thing was, even though the spells only seemed to harmlessly bounce off Cassius and create steam, and the sword slashes were only glancing blows, very rarely drawing blood and never cutting too deep, he seemed that he was completely overwhelmed by the attacks, not trying to fight back or using his flames.
Whatever the case, the trio wasn't done yet. They back away from the thoroughly beaten Cassius in a lose triangle formation and decided to take their game to another level.
Using Dayne's lessons on magic, Sora and Kairi both concentrated unleashed spell variations they had been tinkering with.
Sora felt the chill of ice rise through his Keyblade, snaking up his arm, and letting the icy feeling wash over his body. He then slashed Oblivion through the air, unleashing a pale blue wave of energy.
"Exploding Blizzaga!"
The wave hit Cassius, and instantly erupted into a cluster of ice crystals. Some were rising from a film of ice that had formed on Cassius's body, while others were simply spikes of ice that had formed and lodged themselves into Cassius's flesh. They quickly broke apart and thawed, but the damage had been done, and now Kairi was readying her spell.
Kairi sank back to her memories of the island. The crashing waves along the shoreline, the smell of the salt water constantly in the air, and the long days she spent just sitting in or near the water. Oathkeeper began to shine with a light blue aura, which itself made Oathkeeper's ivory metal look blue. She then hurled the Keyblade into the air, the weapon arcing above Cassius head, and transforming into a dark cloud.
"Frothing Deluge!"
From the cloud came a storm of ice and rain, crashing down on Cassius at high speeds that the droplets of water were more like tiny knives than actual rain.
With the spell over, and the Keyblade back in Kairi's hand, Rain stepped up now, calling upon her own power to destroy Cassius.
"7 Rose Draw, No. 4: Buster!"
The disembodied fist appeared floating next to Rain's right arm. With great anger, the same uncharacteristic anger that would sometimes rise up in Rain, she proceeded to hammer into Cassius, with vicious jabs to the side of his body, powerful straight shots to his body and head and finishing with a single downward shot to Cassius's back, driving him into the ground.
The Immortal managed to get back to his knees but was met by a charging Sora and Kairi, each wielding magically modified Keyblades. Sora's was glowing blue-white and surrounded by ice crystals, while Kairi's was sea blue with small bubbles spinning around them.
"Blizzaga Blade!" Sora called out.
"Waterga Blade!" Kairi shouted.
The two elementally-charged weapons struck Cassius's left arm and gauntlet, breaking through the metal and cutting deeply into his left arm.
The two teens leaped back, creating space between themselves and the staggering, injured Immortal leader.
Cassius, blood dripping from his mouth, stared intently at the raging Rain. "Marina..." Cassius chuckled, still able to flash that slimy, wolfish smile. "When did you acquire such a violent disposition?"
"Its not violence." Rain said, sword twitching in her hand. She always did hate that smile of his. "It's genuine hatred. Nothing more."
Standing up to full height, the group noticed something about Cassius. In that instant, he seemed to be able to shrug off all of the damage that had been inflicted to him. Although he still had several open wounds on his body, his movements were free of pain. It was as if he had turned the clock back to when the three had entered the battle.
"Isn't that interesting..." He mused, that smile still plastered on his face. "Did you not know that hatred is a part of the darkness? That's why nothing you can do can hurt me. Hatred can be powerful, but not the way you use it. Someone who basks in the light like you can never use it to its full potential. And how righteously you bask in that light... I look into your eyes right now, and see it clearly. You think that just by being in the light, by standing next to those Keybladers, you're better than me.
"You can cover yourself in all the light that your heart desires, but you're still an Immortal."
"I am not a monster!" Rain roared back. She had already gone through his once today, and wasn't in the mood for this discussion again.
"Did I use the word monster?" Cassius asked. "No. I called you an 'Immortal', and you instantly react like that is an insult. Well, the way I see it, we Immortals are just the next step in man's evolution. A greater evolved form that defies man, God, and science."
"You know what?" Sora broke in. "All you Immortals have done is spout off a bunch of nonsense, about "the End", "evolution", "perfect beings", "Gods" and a bunch of things I could care less about. The way I see it, all the matters is the here and now. Not your grandiose plans, your cryptic bullcrap, or anything else. Its you and us, and nothing else."
Cassius's smile fell, his gazing turning to Sora. "Fine. It seems that you Keyblade brutes aren't in the mood for talking. If that is the case, I'll teach you all why you should fear Immortality!"
The fiery aura of Cassius picked up again, shading him in orange and red, as he let lose a wave of his own energy, immobilizing the party under the presence of his strength.
"Hell Bomber!"
From the flaming fury around him, several dozen tiny imps flew from it, racing towards Rain. Unable to move in time, they hit her and began to explode on contact, showering her in a cluster of fiery explosions. With Rain burnt and sent flying from the severe attack, the imps veered around to target Sora and Kairi, but they moved away with quick speed.
"One." Cassius said.
Near Cassius's back, Kairi raised her Keyblade at Cassius. Seven beacons of light began to form at its tip, slowly revolving around it. Each small beacon shot forward in quick succession of each other, turning into a beam of light energy as they neared Cassius.
"Angelic Revolver!"
The seven spinning beams nearly made it to Cassius, but he was quick to counter.
"Soul of Fire!"
Quickly negating the Hell Bomber attack, the flaming aura began to spin around Cassius's body, catching the beams before throwing them back at Kairi. She managed to dodge the first two, but soon felt the sting of her own attack. Following the reflected lasers, the carpet of flame spun out, striking Kairi head on. Cassius quickly followed it up with a armoured punch to the young girl's stomach, laying her out on the ground.
"Two."
The hulking fiend spun around quickly, launching a stream of fire that Sora narrowly avoided. Without a second thought, Sora picked out his second Summon Charm that he got back in Disney Castle and raised it into the air.
"Power!" He called out, the Devil Charm shining brightly. "Dante!"
The charm vanished, and Sora waited for some sort of portal or transportation device to appear, but the charm seemed to be a dud, as nothing happened. Cassius laughed loudly at the spectacle, starting to menacingly pace towards Sora.
But suddenly, a loud mechanical roaring began to strike through the air, drowning out the wall of flames that surrounded everyone. Without warning, a motorcycle broke through the fire and crashed into Cassius, knocking him down before performing a donut on the ground, the wheels striking Cassius more and sending him flying away!
The rider flipped off the motorcycle (which mysteriously vanished...). He was a young man, with white hair in a page cut, wearing a red trench coat and black jeans. Strapped to the back of his coat was a pair of Colt pistols – one black, the other white – and a large broadsword. He shadow boxed for a moment, before giving a cocky swagger of his head and turning to Sora.
"Ready to rock, kid?" Dante said.
Sora nodded and hurled his Keyblade at the slowly rising Cassius, the Strike Raid catching him in the chest an throwing him into the ground. Dante rolled forward and drew his pistols, blasting Cassius with a seemingly infinite barrage of gunshots! The momentum of the bullets were enough to juggle Cassius in the air.
When Dante figured his job was done, he sheathed Ebony and Ivory and then gave Sora a leg up, throwing the young teen into the air, who slashed at Cassius, driving him into the ground.
"We're gonna make him cry!" Dante called out.
The Keyblader and demon hunter then decided to give a hit-and-run method. The two rolling past Cassius and slashing at him numerous times.
The combo came to an end when Dante hit an uppercut swing that knocked Cassius into the air again, and turned to Sora.
"Let's inject some style into this party!"
Sora nodded as he held his Keyblade into the air. Dante charged up with demonic energy, before transferring part of that energy into the Keyblade. With air slashes aiming at Cassius, the two unleashed all the demonic energy into the air.
"Devil Rain!"
The demonic energy flew off the blades and swirled up to Cassius in a hurricane of red and purple energy silhouettes of Dante. The spectres slammed into or slashed at the helpless Immortal, before the two finished the attack with one final blast of energy, totally engulfing Cassius.
The phantom motorcycle suddenly appeared in the flame circle again, which Dante promptly mounted again.
He revved the motor and called out at Sora. "Call me when you decide to throw a party again." And with that, he rode off back to the realm of summons.
And although Sora thought he had just won the day, Cassius's laughter proved him wrong. Craning his neck into the sky, he saw that, although bruised and bleeding, Cassius was still very conscious, and floating in mid-air. Laughing and gloating like a mad-man!
"How..." Sora said breathlessly.
"How? Quite simple." Cassius replied, ceasing his mad laughter. "You Sora, are weak."
Anger and shock crossed Sora's face. "I am not!"
"HA!" Cassius barked. "I beg to differ. Maybe in the past, you could be considered a powerful Keyblade Master. You defeated Maleficent and her cohorts, and essentially dismantled the entire Organization XIII by yourself, but you have to understand, that was then. Now, now the world has changed and everyone has stepped up their game. You're still fighting like I'm Xemnas, you're abilities and powers have absolutely stagnated! Riku has found the dawn, Kairi's light gets stronger every fight, and don't even try to compare yourself to Dayne or Rain.
"Strength and weakness are relative, and compared to the world around you these days, you. Are. Weak!"
With his rant finished, Cassius vanished in a plume of flame and re-appeared next to Sora. Suddenly, he clocked him in the chin with a vicious upward thrust kick, followed by a jet of flame, shooting out from the ground diagonally.
The attacks sent Sora flying up and away, Oblivion flying away from his grasp, the heat and flames tearing at his clothes and body. And yet, his whole body just felt numb, like he was having an out of body experience.
Only a single thing floated through his head.
I...lost? Ever since received the Keyblade, he had never been met with any sort of defeat in combat. Never had he truly lost, no matter who he fought. Hades, Maleficent, Riku, Cloud, Hercules, Marluxia, Xemnas... But this, this was a real defeat.
It was just Sora that had lost, Cassius surveyed the battlefield and saw the bodies. Sora was completely out of it, Dayne still had his violent wounds on his body, and both Rain and Kairi were conscious but barely moving at all.
He sneered at the sight. "Pathetic..." He spat it out like it was the foulest of curses. "I thought that two Immortals and two Keyblade Wielders could put up a decent fight....What a disappointment. None of you deserve to live any longer!"
Cassius began to levitate into the air, holding his two palms up above his head. An orange aura began to glow around his body, as the flames surrounding the field swirled up into the sky, gathering into a compact, pulsing, crimson fireball sitting in Cassius's hands.
The sudden drop of heat and change in lighting must have had some sort of effect on Dayne, as he started to stir slightly, turning onto his side and looking at the fireball in Cassius's hands. Sensing the terrible power radiating from him.
"No..." He croaked in urgency. "Not...won't let it happen!" Despite the beating he had received, Dayne managed to rise to shaky feet, eyes trained on the floating Cassius.
Cassius's face had turn from one of disgust and rage into a more serene, almost priestly stare. "It makes no difference I suppose...you would have made it to the End and been judged like so many others. This might be a kinder fate." With a deep breath, Cassius's voice boomed forth across the land. "I condemn all of you to the hands of destiny....
"WORLD'S INFERNO!!!"
Cassius began to lower the fireball to his chest, planning to unleash the true power of fire across the field. The flames would spread across the field and absolutely incinerate the four belligerents, turning them to ash in an instant. There would be no escape.
But the attack never had a chance to spread, as Dayne summoned what was left of his strength and bolted into the air surrounded by black and white energy.
"Limit Break: The Daemon!"
Dayne transformed into his Daemon form and approached Cassius at point-blank, just as World's Inferno was beginning to fire. Dayne pressed himself in between the fireball and Cassius, letting the full concentrated strength of the flames wash over his body, damaging it even more.
But, he may have had to sacrifice his body, but Dayne had done it. He absorbed every ounce of the attack, some of the flames even going back on Cassius. The Daemon form was canceled, and a large black hole was visible on his chest as he crashed down to earth, a hole of blackened blood and burnt skin, but he did it. And now, just maybe, the others may survive.
Cassius soon came to the ground as well, incensed by what just happened. Molten fury conjured inside his eyes, as he picked up Dayne's discarded High Streak, stalking the Immortal who was now at death's door.
"You..." Cassius began, choking on his own anger. "I tried to treat you like an equal, more like an old friend than a mortal enemy. I never meant you any malice. But now, you have crossed the line that separates minor curiosity and an aggravating annoyance!" Raising High Streak into the air over the prone Dayne, Cassius boomed to the heavens once more.
"With the infinite power and endless fires of hell, I strike thee down, my brother!"
But before he could lower the sword, something came rushing into Cassius's peripheral vision. The blur dashed over Dayne and tackled Cassius, knocking him down and causing High Streak to fall from his clutches.
Everything happened so fast. Sora and Kairi managed to regain conscious and get back to their feet, casting half-hearted Cure spells on themselves, and then on Dayne. Once again, Kairi force fed Dayne an elixir, this time the curative tincture doing its jobs as Dayne sat up, coughing from having the liquid forcibly enter his system.
"What...happened?" He moaned. His entire body was still screaming in agony and the majority of his wounds hadn't healed yet. He shook his head to try and shake the stars away.
"Maybe you can tell us," Sora said quietly. "I mean...I got knocked down sometime ago..."
"Guys!" Kairi shouted, turning everyone's attention over to the far side of the battlefield.
The blur that had knocked down Cassius was none other than Rain! She had charged at Cassius, Scarlet Queen drawn, and had impaled the sword deep into his gut. The two were still wrestling, Rain trying her hardest to dig her blade as deep as possible, and Cassius trying to shake her off. Rain had scissored Cassius's waist with her legs for extra leverage, and both beings were surrounded by a violent red and yellow aura.
"What is she..." Dayne began, before it hit him. Wide-eyed that she was actually doing this, Dayne somehow managed to get to his feet, but couldn't move an inch, falling down near instantly, as his body quit on him again.
"Dayne!" Kairi yelled in shock, trying feebly to catch the much larger warrior. "What's wrong? What did you realize just now?"
Dayne, who was trashing about from the pain he was in, began to scream and rave like a maniac. "You got to stop her! You got to! Hurry! Hurry, please!"
"Why?" Kairi asked, trying to calm down the pained ex-Immortal. "Why? What's happening."
"Stop her! Please! Please!!!"
Sora and Kairi look to each other and wordlessly decided, getting to their feet and charging the tangled combatants. But their advance was halted by an invisible force. For some reason, they couldn't move closer than ten-feet to the two.
Unable to do anything physically, Sora went with the next course of action. "Rain? RAIN?" He called out. "What are you doing?"
"Dayne's panicking like mad about this!" Kairi added quickly.
Still trying to keep her grip on the much larger Cassius, Rain called back to them. "Remember when I told you how Scarlet Queen absorbs energy for me? Well, it can only store a finite amount of energy, before the container breaks. Fortunately, it can store so much energy, that there are very few sources that can cause it to break."
The pieces started to fall into place, but the picture wasn't visible yet. "Why...why are you doing this then?" Kairi asked.
"Cassius's 'Perfect Soul'." She replied, with a bitter bite in her voice. "His body is an infinite well of energy! Once Scarlet Queen reaches its maximum, it will go into critical flux, shattering, and unleashing all the energy it gathered at once!"
"What?" Sora said in shock.
"What?" Kairi said in fear.
"What?" Cassius said in surprise.
Looking directly at her former leader, Rain replied with hate and sarcasm. "In layman's terms: We. Go. Boom!"
"Rain, that's insane!" Kairi said. Sora and her and were once again trying to fight there way through the invisible barrier, but to no avail. "You'll die! You...you can't do this!"
"I have to..." Rain said, tightening her grip on Scarlet Queen and Cassius. "I have to...I may die, but so will Cassius! With him gone, we've pretty much won!"
"To hell with that!" Cassius roared back. "What makes you think that to be true?"
"We both know that all the other Immortals are just a bunch of scheming, self-serving fools. They'll fall apart without you!"
"True. Then I'll just have to make sure I don't die now!"
Cassius suddenly tightened his grip on Rain, crushing her spine in an agonizing bear hug, while pressing her gut hard against the pommel of her sword. Not to be defeated, Rain continued to struggle, head-butting Cassius square in the face, breaking his nose, and splitting open her head. When that didn't work, she went at him like an animal, clamping her teeth down on his shattered nose and then his forehead, tearing out a chunk of flesh on the second attempt! Still, Cassius didn't relent, so Rain resorted to her most based of tactics. She kicked Cassius in a man's most sacred zone, striking him in the nethers with a vicious short-range boot. Once, twice, thrice! Cassius gargled blood and lurched forward, his vice grip ceasing, as he fell to a knee.
A small crack appeared in the blade of Scarlet Queen.
While the grappling was going on, Dayne had managed to crawl his way into earshot with Rain, watching her struggle, life and death hanging in the balance. He knew he should say something to her, something comforting, romantic, heart-warming, life-affirming...but he had nothing.
"Rain..." He stumbled over his own tongue. "Rain...please...don't do this!"
Rain twisted her head to look at her husband, smiling with tears in her eyes. "Dayne..." She began, fighting back the tears, and making sure Cassius wouldn't escape. "I need to do this. Not just for you, or for Sora and Kairi. But for everyone. For me." More cracks began to spread along Scarlet Queen. The aura around the two intensified, pushing everyone back even farther. "I want you to understand that this is my choice, nothing more. I'm not doing this just so we can win today, I'm doing this is because I want to. I want to give my life today, because I have lived for so long and seen so many things...but I want to rest now." More tears began to stream down her battered face, as everyone watched her with the same teary eyes and total silence. "I'm so tired...
"But I want all of you to know, how much I've loved my time with you. Sora...Kairi... I'm so glad that I got to meet you, that I got to know you. You're such wonderful people, and you deserve to be with one another, to have that happiness. And Dayne...you're one of the most loving, dedicated, passionate souls I have ever met. I got to spend thirty-years of my life with you, and wherever I go, I will cherish every single, solitary moment we had together. And all I ask of you is to promise me one thing...watch over those two," she looked at Sora and Kairi, with a sad, yet matronly smile, "And live whatever life you have left to its fullest."
"Rain..." Dayne said. Nearly all of Scarlet Queen was cracked on its surface, and it had begun to pulsate. "Don't say these crazy things. Don't! Just don't! You're not going to die now. We still have six-months together. We can't win!" Dayne was trying to crawl beyond the invisible force, but was only clawing at the stone. "We can win and we can travel or spend time with the Princess or do whatever! Please, I need you..."
Choking back as many tears as possible, Rain forced a smile. "You have six months. Just you." She said, mystifying the others. "Dayne, you can live without me. You're strong! Don't give up hope just because of this."
Sora, who had been forced into a stupor from what he was seeing, yelled loudly at Rain, letting out everything he had been holding in. "Damn it Rain! This isn't how it's suppose to happen! You're not suppose to die! No one's suppose to die!" He stared directly at her, fear etching itself onto his face, traumatized by what he was seeing.
"I'm sorry Sora. This is how life is. It hurts.... I know you'll take care of Kairi, and I know you two will have a bright future." A sudden, loud snapping sound cut the air. Scarlet Queen had reached its breaking point. Putting another smile on her face, Rain raised her head back and inhaled for one last time.
Instantly, Rain warped away, to some unknown location. Just as face, off in the horizon, there was momentary a flash of unworldly bright white, which soon collapsed in on itself, and unleashed a roar comparable to that of a jet engine, followed by a massive shockwave, that reached all the way over to the group. And as soon as the wave hit them, reality hit them.
Rain was gone.
Sora and Kairi were paralyzed by what had just occurred, by Dayne – injured though he was – managed to somehow find his feet and, in an act that even when describing Dayne could be called inhuman, started to half-walk, half-stumble towards the site of the explosion.
Sora and Kairi would follow shortly after, and they charged as fast as they could with their injured bodies for close to half an hour. The site was hard to find, as it was clear it had happened where it happened by the black scorch marks all over the dark steel blue stone. A small part of Scarlet Queen and its hilt was present, the metal burnt out and ruined.
But, with the exception of the scorch marks and the sword, there was nothing.
Just nothing.
Sora and Kairi arrived five minutes after Dayne, to see the once stoic, proud warrior clawing the stone and dirt, muttering "No" over and over again.
Even though Rain had said that the war would be over with Cassius's death, those sentiments rang hollow at this moment in time. Sora and Kairi held each other, watching Dayne waste all his energy mumbling and moaning, a sense of sorrow and horror nesting in them. This wasn't a victory, no matter what anyone else might say. On this day, they had been utterly, and totally defeated.
To Be Continued
I'm not gonna say anything, or give any comments. I'm just going to let all of this sink in.
Journal Set # 11
Allister Cdyn
A member of the Radiant Guardians, and current acting-commander, Allister is an expert sword fighter, being able to stand even with supernatural foes, even when he doesn't use his own supernatural powers. An Al-Bhed, Allister is a very suave individual, with a sharp wit, dazzling charisma, and a way with the ladies.
Clyde Rantz
A member of the Radiant Guardians, and current acting second-in-command. Clyde is an expert marksmen and desperado, excelling in all sorts of firearms and explosives. Unlike Allister, Clyde has a much more eccentric and explosive personality, tending to act like a befuddled clown more often than not.
Cassius
The first-ranked Immortal and their absolute leader. Cassius tends to be much more calm and composed compared to his followers, treating his mysterious mission as a crusade. When angered, his true temperament comes roaring out. He appeared before Dayne on the Radiant Garden, beating the warrior from pillar to post, before doing the same to Kairi, Sora, and Rain. He was so powerful that in order to kill him, Rain had to sacrifice herself. In battle, Cassius used a large sword, his fists, and a supreme mastery of fire.
Chapter Preview
Angelo (narrating): The mettle of a man is tested by the adversities he faces.
Dayne: Why did this have to happen? It should have been me...
Angelo: But what happens to those who cannot prove their mettle?
Dayne: You don't need me anymore. You two have a job to finish.
Angelo: Do they fade away into nothingness? Or do they simply not match up to others?
Kairi: You can't leave! We need you!
Sora: Its just... You can't give up just because of this. It's hard, but you can't give up!
Dayne: I don't have to do anything anyone tells me. I want to be free... until Fate surrounds me.
Angelo: Or maybe, failing their test of mettle, is the true adversity a person faces.
Next Chapter: His name is survival. Genesis of Destiny 29: The Strength to Go On.
Dayne: Sadly, I am myself, and nothing more.
Kairi: I won't let you go! Not another person! I can't let it happen!
Please Review
Go Canucks, Go!
SirAngelo
